First Harvest

Less than six months after Boeing and South African Airways (SAA) announced their plans to turn “energy tobacco” into sustainable aviation biofuel, farmers in South Africa’s Limpopo province are harvesting their first crop of a nicotine-free, energy-rich tobacco plant.

Timely and Effective Solutions

For more than a decade, Boeing has demonstrated its commitment to the health of the Lower Duwamish Waterway and surrounding communities in Seattle, Wash., by investing in cleanup activities and habitat restoration. Boeing works with businesses, tribes, government agencies and the local community to implement protective cleanup solutions under the direction of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington State Department of Ecology. In addition to its “early action” cleanup efforts that are helping to reduce PCB risks in the waterway sediment by half, Boeing has completed the largest habitat restoration in the Lower Duwamish Waterway.

Posters

Plant 2 Images: The Past and Today

History of Boeing Plant 2

Boeing can trace its nearly 100-year history back to the banks of the Lower Duwamish Waterway. In addition to supplying the U.S. military with nearly 7,000 B-17 bombers throughout World War II, Boeing Plant 2 provided thousands of Washington men and women with manufacturing and industrial jobs.

In December 2011, the aging 1.7 million square foot facility was demolished to clear the way for Boeing’s cleanup and habitat restoration efforts along the Lower Duwamish Waterway. Over 85 percent of the building materials were recycled or reused.

The 5,000th B-17 bomber built after Pearl Harbor carried the signatures of all the builders, riveters and designers who worked on it at Boeing Plant 2.

Making Progress with Early Cleanup

Boeing recently completed its third and final season of dredging in the Duwamish Waterway near the former Plant 2 site. Boeing removed enough sediment to fill approximately 3,000 railcars and replaced it with clean sand to restore the waterway.

This effort was one of the “early action” cleanup projects which — combined with other early action work managed by the Port of Seattle, City of Seattle and King County — reduces chemical concentrations in the waterway sediment by half. Dredging was done under the direction and oversight of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Washington State Department of Ecology.

State-of-the-art Water Treatment System

Boeing installed a state-of-the-art treatment system at Plant 2 to clean the water removed during its “early action” dredging activities.

Restoring Habitat for Fish and Wildlife

Boeing created intertidal wetlands to improve waterway conditions, serve as a resting area for migrating salmon and benefit birds like this great blue heron.

Amid barges stacked high with containers set for Alaska and heaps of old appliances waiting to be recycled, there is now natural, undeveloped shoreline along this working waterway. Boeing completed the largest habitat restoration in the Lower Duwamish Waterway, transforming nearly one mile of former industrial waterfront adjacent to the former Plant 2 site into a wetland resource that improves Puget Sound salmon runs.

From tufted hairgrass and bulrush to willows and big leaf maple, more than 170,000 native plants now occupy five acres along the water’s edge. These wetland plants and grasses, along with piles of woody debris that are anchored in place along the shoreline, provide refuge and food sources for fish and wildlife. A protection system built out of ropes and lightweight steel rods is currently in place to prevent geese from uprooting the young plants.

Boeing’s habitat restoration work was done under the oversight of the Natural Resource Trustees, a group that is made up of several federal and state agencies, as well as local tribes. Boeing's cleanup and restoration efforts along the Lower Duwamish Waterway are all part of the company's larger commitment to conduct environmental work that is valuable to the ecosystem, Puget Sound and surrounding communities.